Old Friends and Enemies
by Trouble Kelp
Summary: Holly is being stalked, but not by someone she thought would want to stalk her. Then she risks her life to save an old friend who she thought was dead. What will happen when some of her old enemies regroup?
1. Bombs and Noses

Disclaimer: I don't own anything that I don't own, because if I did own what I didn't own I wouldn't have to be sitting here typing that I didn't own anything that I don't own. What I do own is everything that isn't what I don't own.

A/N: This is a random story that popped into my head. Like everything else I write. This is going to be one of my longest stories. I would appreciate reviews, flames welcome. I hope people enjoy this. And every chapter for this story will be ten pages long - nice long chapters. Anyway, I hope anyone who reads this enjoys this.

**Old Friends and Enemies**

_**Set after Opal Deception**_

_Holly is being stalked, but not by someone she thought would want to stalk her. Then she risks her life to save an old friend who she thought was dead. What will happen when some of her old enemies regroup?_

**Chapter One: Bombs and Noses**

Holly Short stretched and looked at her alarm clock, her alarm-less alarm clock. She didn't really have any need for it anymore, ever since she had quit the LEP. It was really beginning to frustrate her. She had quit the LEP to get away from him, but it almost seemed as though he was stalking her, he was trying to get her in trouble for almost every little thing.

Holly groaned and stumbled out of bed. It didn't really matter how long it took her to get up right now, because how ever late she was to work, you could guarantee that Mulch would be a couple of hours later. He was like that. A useful business partner, yes, he had more contacts in the criminal world than her former Police self could possibly ever dream of catching. For that reason Mulch wouldn't tell her where he got his information. But it was obvious enough.

Sometimes she wondered why she bothered going into partnership with Mulch, he cost her a lot, yet she knew deep down that she couldn't just ditch him. Despite his extremely annoying habits, and how much Commander Root had shouted at him, he really had been Julius' favourite reprobate deep down.

She went through this train of thought almost every morning. She just still couldn't believe that Commander Root was dead. Gone. It had been six months, and those few seconds still awoke her almost every night. The bomb, his chest, Koboi, the non-existent sweet spot, Julius being hurled backwards into the chute…

She forced herself to stop thinking about that now. She needed to get to work. She had some pretty big cases she was meant to be working on at the moment. People would rather go to her than Sool to have their problems solved. She wasn't complaining, she could see where they were coming from, so she took the work. Besides, she needed the money.

Groaning, she grabbed a leftover Nettle smoothie. She opened it up and was about to drink it when she had a flash-back to when she had grabbed a half finished nettle smoothie before being yelled at by Commander Root for being less than half a minute late. She sighed, put the smoothie back in the fridge and headed to work.

After ages on the thoroughfare she arrived at her office. It was outside the Central Business District, of course. Don't you know how much an office in the CBD costs?

She was always tired these days, she wasn't sure why, the fire had just gone out of her somewhere along the line. She looked behind her, sure she was being watched. She kept getting that feeling nowadays, but so far it had proved to be nothing, so she decided to ignore it. It was probably just her being overly jumpy. Nothing had been right since Commander Root's death and Sool's promotion.

She shuddered and slammed the door behind her, walking into her office. She slumped into her chair and pulled her current case file towards her. It was a straightforward enough case: a stolen painting. Mulch would be able to sort it out soon enough. She threw it across to his desk.

She was suddenly overwhelmed with tiredness and decided to rest, just for a couple of minutes. She lay her head down on her desk.

Holly was awoken by someone shaking her shoulder gently.

'Just five more minutes,' she muttered, trying to role over.

She ended up on the floor, with a slightly shocked Trouble Kelp staring down at her. He quickly bent down to help her up. She ignored his offered hand and pulled herself up on the corner of her desk. She slumped into her chair, gesturing at the chair across from her, the visitor's chair.

He sat down slowly, scanning her with his eyes. She had rapidly gone downhill since she had quit the LEP, it was obvious. It was actually quite sad, she had been on the LEP fast track, one of the best officers, if not the best, and now she had quit. All because of that egotistical jerk Sool.

He decided he actually felt quite sorry for her. Not to mention himself. It was the highlight of his day every day he used to see her at work. She was his best friend, she still was, but it was harder to see her when they didn't work at the same place.

Holly was surprised at how tired Trouble looked, not that she really was surprised. Sool had a reputation for being the laziest Commander of the LEP ever. Trouble was being forced to pick up the giant workload that Sool refused to pick up. She wondered why he had dropped in, considering that he had obviously just got off of the night shift.

'Are you OK Holly?' Trouble broke the silence.

'Um, yea, just tired, that's all.'

Trouble almost snorted. Sure, she looked tired, but that obviously wasn't the only thing wrong with her. He decided not to push it, for now.

'So, how are things going at the LEP?'

'Sool is the same idiot that he always was. On the bright side he's under review by Internal Affairs, he doesn't have as much influence there as he used to, surprise, surprise. It turns out all his old buddies from IA hated him just as much as the rest of the LEP.'

'That's great. I mean that he's under review,' replied Holly, the first true smile since she had quit the LEP almost made it to her face, almost.

'So how are things going with Mulch?'

'He's eating me out of house and home, but it's worth it. Between him and the mud boy I have the best contacts that anyone could wish for. Handy in this job.'

'I'm sure it is. Are you still sure you won't come back to the LEP, the council is almost ready to give you your acorns back, I'm sure. The force just isn't the same without you.'

'I'm not coming back Trouble, at least not while Sool is Commander, and not while half the people in Haven still think I'm responsible for Julius' death, even if it was Koboi.'

Trouble decided to give up. He was never going to manage to persuade Holly to come back to the LEP, however much he wanted her to.

'OK.'

'So, why are you here?'

'I just got off night shift. Thought I'd drop in to say hi.'

'Oh, OK, well, hi.'

This was going well, thought Trouble sarcastically. I come to see her, manage to get her to roll off her chair, and now I can't think of anything to say.

'Well, I was thinking, that since tomorrow's my day off, do you want to come round to my place? Or go and do something like a movie?'

At least I managed to come up with something to say, he thought.

Holly was shocked to say the least. She hadn't really had contact with anyone from the LEP (other than the officers Sool kept sending to try and fine her and arrest her for various non-existent crimes) since she had quit. She didn't miss some of the company she used to have, especially not Chix Verbil and some of the other males that kept hitting on her, but she did miss some of her mates, and Foaly. She had talked to Foaly and Trouble a couple of times on her telephone, but that was about it.

She realised she was drifting off again, and Trouble looked like he was sitting there waiting for an answer. She decided that she really did need to get out of the office (she hadn't had a day off for ages) and that there was no way she would rather spend it than with one of her best friends.

'Yea, sure.'

'Great,' Trouble was so happy, she really needed to get out of the office, that much was obvious, 'I'll come and get you in the morning, OK?'

'Yea, go home and get some sleep now. You look like you need at least eighteen hours.'

'Oh, I'm counting on it.'

Holly wondered why he wasn't moving. Maybe he hadn't realised their conversation was over, at least until tomorrow, he looked tired enough that that could easily be possible.

'Bye Trouble.'

Trouble suddenly realised that he was just sitting there looking like an idiot. He quickly stood up and grabbed his helmet, which he had put down on the edge of Holly's desk.

'See you,' he said, before walking out the door, straight into an eavesdropping Mulch.

Holly had picked up her case file as Trouble was leaving, only to hear a muffled bump and some colourful swearing coming from the other side of the door. The swearing, she could tell was coming from Mulch. She sighed, stood up and walked out the door, to find Trouble holding a very annoyed Mulch by the beard.

'What's going on?' asked Holly wearily.

'He's holding my beard, what does it look like?' replied Mulch.

'He was eavesdropping.'

'It's nice to see you getting out of the office Holly.'

Holly sighed, typical males.

'Let go of him please Trouble. Mulch, stop eavesdropping on my private conversations, I am not going to inform the LEP of your somewhat suspicious behaviour, and I want my privacy.'

'I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that,' said Trouble as he released Mulch's beard.

Mulch ignored him, and walked towards the fridge.

'We're out of beetle juice,' was the next thing that came out of his mouth, which, funnily enough, had a large amount of food revolving around inside it.

'Buy your own this time,' retorted Holly, before turning back to Trouble.

'See you tomorrow then,' she said.

'Bye.'

With that Trouble finally left.

Holly sighed again, and walked back into her office, but not before yelling at Mulch to get back to work.

Holly plopped herself back down in her chair, and then glanced at her desk. Sitting on her desk was a piece of Holly, which she obviously hadn't put there. Oh so very original.

'Mulch,' she called, 'is this your idea of a joke, because it isn't very funny.'

She heard Mulch stop eating, and watched the door of her office open, and Mulch poke his head in.

'What joke Holly, will I find it funny?'

'So you didn't do it?'

'Do what?'

'Hmm, then I wonder who did, I was only out of office for a few seconds.'

It was then that she noticed the window in office was wide open. The Police officer in her began to take over.

'Out of the office,' she said tensely to Mulch.

'What… wait where did the holly come from? Oh I get it, holly, ha-ha funny.' Mulch began to giggle.

'Out Mulch.'

Mulch for once caught the serious tone of her voice. And for once he obeyed her without question. At a normal time she would have tried to remember the tone she used so as to have it to manipulate Mulch with in the future. But right now she was more worried about the open window and the holly on her desk. Chances were that the two were somehow connected, things like this weren't coincidences. This probably meant that the holly sitting on her desk was more than just holly. As every LEP cadet knows, "don't judge a book by its cover".

She approached the holly slowly, and grabbed her magnifying glass from the other end of her desk. In the old days she would have just used the zoom on her LEP helmet, but those were the old days. Three days after she had quit the LEP Sool had obtained a search warrant and raided her home for and LEP technology that she might have had. He had even taken her uniforms, which she had had to pay for with her own cash. The thing that made her most angry was that a few days later she had come home to find all of her photos were missing too, including the few featuring her with her father. Needless to say she was extremely angry. The odd thing was though, that when she called Foaly up to see if he could get the photo's back for her, him having a very strong influence at the LEP and all, his reply had been that the photo's had never officially come in. So Holly was left photo-less and devastated.

Snap out of it, Holly told herself. You can worry about your photographs later, right now, there is the slight issue of that holly sitting on your desk.

She looked at the red beads carefully (the holly was fake, naturally, it being the middle of July) and noticed that each had a small section that looked suspiciously like the power sources that were found on bio-bombs. Holly had a brief flash-back to when Opal Koboi had tried to kill her, having already killed Commander Root.

She needed no more time for thought; she turned and sprinted out of her office. Mulch was standing beside the door, waiting to see what was going on. Without saying a word she grabbed his arm and pulled him towards the exit from their office, which was on the sixth story of an office building. She dragged him out into the corridor and away from their office to the stairwell. There she stopped. She had left the door to their office open. She turned around just in time to see a flash a blue light from inside the office, but she was right, it had been focused to explode just inside their office, there hadn't been any fallout. Mulch had seen what she had seen, and his jaw had dropped. It is quite a sight when the jaw of a dwarf has dropped, it reaches almost to his knees (I didn't say it was pretty).

After a few seconds Mulch regained his senses and re-hinged his jaw.

'Wow, good thing you figured out what that was. How did you know?'

Holly still looked very shaken, and didn't reply, just held up the magnifying glass, which she was still clutching. Mulch decided to try something else.

'Well, should we go back in now?' he asked, beginning to walk towards the office.

'No,' Holly broke her own silence, her hand shooting out and grabbing the back of Mulch's shirt. There was no time for subtlety.

'Why, the bomb's gone off hasn't it?'

Holly didn't reply, just held him back. Mulch was just beginning to get annoyed at her, when yet another sphere of blue light blossomed from their office. That shut him up.

'How did you know about that one?'

'There were three beads on the holly, three bombs,' replied Holly. It appeared that the second bomb had helped her to get over her speechlessness.

'So we have to wait for one more bomb to go off?'

'Yes. I think that it was planned so that at least one of them would catch me, or you, but probably me, it was on my desk. That's the thing about bio-bombs. You don't notice that one has gone off unless you go looking for dead insects,' Holly didn't really want to explain everything to Mulch, but she gave him a quick run down of what she thought was happening. While the bombs could have been aimed at Mulch it was unlikely, as they had been left on her desk. This was worrying, it was a little too close to Opal Koboi's style. But Koboi was currently locked up in Howler's Peak, and she would be staying there for a long time. She was in a coma again, but a method had been devised to test to see if it was another one of her cleansing comas. It was a cleansing coma, so they just chucked her in a maximum security cell in Howler's Peak. It wouldn't hurt her; she was a megalomaniac, after all.

'Right,' said Mulch, not really understanding much, except that someone was trying to kill his business partner. That was worrying, who would buy food if Holly was dead?

They stood in silence, until yet another sphere of light blossomed from their office. _This is actually getting quite monotonous_, thought Holly glumly.

Finally the three bombs had gone off. Holly crept quietly back into her office. The holly was still sitting on her desk, untouched, except for the fact that the three red beads were missing. She sighed, picked up the leaves, and tossed them in the recycler.

Mulch came up behind her and gently touched her arm. He wasn't very good at this comforting lark, but he had to try, someone had just tried to kill his business partner.

'What kind of psycho tries to blow someone up?' he asked. Unfortunately Holly had been too busy brooding to notice him touch her arm, and this unexpected question made her jump, especially considering it was exactly what had been going through her head mere seconds before.

Holly nearly jumped out of her skin, she spun around quickly, and aimed a punch at whatever was touching her and asking questions. She wasn't thinking straight, she hadn't recognised the voice as Mulch. She smacked whatever it was right on the nose; she heard it crack. Good, her enemy would be disabled for a couple of minutes at least; time to find something to cuff him with. Then she noticed who she had punched, and that he was currently on his knees on the floor, holding his nose, which was spouting blood, and he had no magic to heal it. She quickly dropped to her knees, and raised Mulch's head to look at it.

'Sorry,' she apologised.

'Sno, broblem, eel, blease, sneeze,' was what emerged from Mulch's mouth. Or at least, that's what it sounded like. Holly had heard enough people with broken noses speak (it was amazing how people's noses just happened to break when she got angry at them) to be able to roughly translate what Mulch was trying to say. She took it to mean "It is no problem, heal it please". Where sneezing came into it she didn't understand, but there you go.

Just as Holly was about to heal Mulch she learnt what sneezing had to do with this equation. Mulch chose that exact moment to sneeze, submerging himself, Holly and Holly's office in a tsunami of snot and blood mixture, not the most desirable of substances at the best of times.

The blood was now flowing even more freely from Mulch's nose, so she quickly bent down, touched his nose, muttered 'heal' and let the blue sparks flow from her slim elfin fingers.

'Thanks,' said Mulch, rubbing his newly repaired nose.

'Don't mention it. Just don't ever sneeze again,' muttered Holly, trying not to look too disgusted. She began to head for the bathroom, to clean up, as you do.

The communicator connected to the one she had given Artemis chose that exact moment to begin buzzing. She was beginning to get annoyed. This day was much too eventful for her liking. Unfortunately for Artemis he caught the fallout from this particular explosion.

'It better be good mud boy this is not a good time!'

Sitting in his room in Fowl Manor in Ireland Artemis Fowl was more than a little surprised at Holly. It had been months since she had called him mud boy, and longer since she had snapped at him like that. She must really be having a bad day. Unfortunately for him his curious side got the better of him. If they hadn't been communicating over a screen Holly probably would have strangled him.

'Bad day Miss Short?'

'Don't call me that, I will not be referred to as Miss,' screamed Holly. She was still taking the fact that she was not longer Captain Short quite hard and she did not need Artemis rubbing it in at this particular point in time.

Artemis decided it was in his eardrums interest that he not provoke Holly.

'Anything I can help with Holly?' he asked, a little more tentatively.

'No, not unless you can wipe blood and snot off me from up there in Ireland.'

Artemis winced; he could just imagine the stench that would cause. He took another look at Holly, and sure enough, she was covered in red sticky stuff with the odd bit of bogey colour thrown in. Charming.

'How did that happen?' he asked, managing to make himself sound concerned.

'I broke Mulch's nose.'

'It's not a good idea to break your business partner's nose, you know.'

'I'm not an idiot, he came up behind me after someone detonated three bio-bomb's in my office.'

Artemis was more than a little shocked by this news, and even more shocked by how matter of factly Holly was taking a murder attempt.

'You or Mulch?'

'What?'

'Were they trying to murder you or Mulch?'

'Me, the bombs were on my desk. Whoever it was came in through my window and planted them on my desk in about a two minute window while I was trying to stop Trouble murdering Mulch for eavesdropping.'

Mulch decided to chose that moment to join the conversation. He was covered in exactly the same substance that Holly was covered in. Artemis looked at the office walls behind them, they were covered in the same stuff too. Before he could ask Holly _what_ it was that the bomb released Mulch piped up.

'Yea, Arty, did you know Holly is taking her first day off work tomorrow/'

'Finally, I've been telling her for ages that she needs a break. Who managed to get her to take it?'

'Trouble, that elf sure is talented, he just comes in to talk to her and voila, she's taking a day off. Shame he tried to kill me though.'

'I need to meet this Trouble someday, he sounds extremely talented.'

'Getting off the subject of LEP Major's,' interjected Holly, 'I decided to take a day off because I wanted to. Let's get off my work habits now.'

'Right, so what exactly did this bomb release?'

'It was a _bio-bomb_ Artemis, you know how they work.'

What she said was oh so true. Artemis had narrowly escaped death from a bio-bomb twice. He didn't want to come any nearer to one than he had the second time, courtesy of Opal Koboi.


	2. Disbelief and Stalkers

Disclaimer: I don't own anything that I don't own, because if I did own what I didn't own I wouldn't have to be sitting here typing that I didn't own anything that I don't own. What I do own is everything that isn't what I don't own.

A/N: Chapter two is now officially written and posted. Sorry it took so long, I kind of forgot I'd posted the first chapter. Not going to happen again. Hopefully updates will be regular, I have some of the story written and the whole thing mapped out. I will murder myself if I loose the plan, honestly. Anyway, no one needed to know that, so here is chapter two. And thanks to everyone who reviewed, replies are at the end of this chapter.

**Chapter Two: Disbelief and Stalkers**

'So… What are you going to do about it? Report it to the LEP?'

'Of course I'm not, you idiot,' Holly knew that would insult Artemis, considering he was a genius, after all, 'Sool wouldn't do anything about it; except steal more of my possessions.'

Artemis knew what she was talking about. She had told him about all of her photo's being taken.

'Well, you can't just do nothing about it Holly.Someone tried to _murder_ you.'

'What do you expect me to do about it? I can look after myself thank you very much.'

'You could tell Trouble about it. He seems to care about you, and he must have some influence with the LEP.'

'I will look after myself Artemis. Trust me, OK?' Holly was now back to business, this call was costing her, after all. 'Now, I assume there was a reason you called?'

Artemis was worried about Holly, but he could tell when their conversation was over, so he decided not to push it, for now.

'Yes, I have a lead on the whereabouts of Mulch's former gold, formerly belonging to the LEP Holly Short Ransom Fund.'

Holly winced; she hated talking about the time she was kidnapped. The time Artemis kidnapped her.

Foaly himself had hired Holly to find the gold. He was trying to be nice and give her something to do. This was before word spread about how good Holly's PI service was, and she was inundated with cases. She didn't want to make Foaly feel unwanted, so she continued to follow the case.

'It appears to be in the hands of some people who don't want to be seen. And these people seem to be acting on the orders of some other people. It is all being moved to New Zealand, it's very odd.'

'Right, so do you suggest I go in there all guns blazing and get it back?'

'No, I suggest you wait a bit and see what is done with this gold.'

'I'll take your advice on that one, since I'm inundated with cases at the moment,' Holly decided it really was time to end the call, it was costing her money she probably didn't have, and it was costing her time she definitely didn't have. 'I have to go now Artemis, get cleaned up and work, thanks for the information. I promise I will get round to a social call one of these days.'

'First tell me how you got covered in that stuff, if it wasn't from the bomb, Mulch breaking his nose doesn't explain it.'

'Mulch sneezed after I broke his nose.'

'Oh, charming.'

'Isn't it just?'

'Talk to you soon Holly.'

'Bye Artemis.'

'Come up with a reward for me yet?'

'MULCH' screamed Holly and Artemis simultaneously.

'Sorry,' said Holly, and then hung up. A slightly confused Artemis was left staring at the now silent communicator.

Butler chose that moment to walk into Artemis' room. He saw his employer holding the communicator looking slightly flummoxed.

'Problems sir?'

'No Butler, just Mulch being his usual self, and someone is trying to murder Holly.'

'What?'

'Mulch is still asking for a reward.'

'I meant what did you say about Holly?'

'Oh, right, sorry, someone set off three bio bombs in her office.'

'Does she need me to go and teach whoever it was a lesson?'

'I'm sure she's quite capable of teaching them a lesson herself, and besides, she isn't planning on telling anyone else about it.'

'Shouldn't she tell the LEP?'

'One word: Sool.'

'Oh, right.'

'There is one good thing though.'

'Oh?'

'Trouble managed to get her to take a day off.'

'Trouble?'

'It would appear Trouble is a LEP Major and a friend of Holly's.'

'Shouldn't she tell him about the bombs?'

'She will if she wants to. It isn't really our business who she tells. I assume there was a reason you came up here?'

'Yes, sir, your father wishes to talk to you.'

'Great. I suppose I really should come and talk to him then.'

Artemis walked down the corridor to his father's study. It had been his at one stage while his father was missing in the Arctic, but his father was back now, so Artemis was stuck in his room. He wondered briefly why his father wanted to see him. Probably just another speech about morality, he seemed to be giving a lot of them lately.

He knocked on the door and entered. At one stage his father kept the door locked at all times, and Artemis was very rarely allowed in. Now he was summoned there almost every day.

His father looked up from the bank account he had open on his screen.

'Come in Arty.'

'You wanted to see me father?'

'Yes Artemis, I wanted to congratulate you.'

'Congratulate me father?'

'Yes, my law enforcement contacts tell me that you haven't been involved in any criminal activity recently.'

'I still think the Fowls would be better off conducting criminal activity, even if it is only to bankrupt the worlds larger companies.'

'No Artemis, the Fowls are on the straight and narrow from now on.'

'Fine father. Will that be all?'

'We really need to work on this formality issue you have son, I know we were never close in the past, but we need to work on that, we need to be like a father and son.'

'We are a father and son. I'm going back to my room now.'

'Why don't you go outside in the garden with your mother? I will come too.'

'No thank you father. I am afraid I have become rather addicted to a computer game.'

Artemis Senior knew his son was lying, but decided to leave it for now.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

_Holly's Office_

_Haven_

Holly had just hung up on Artemis. She turned to Mulch.

'How many times have I told you to stop asking him for a reward?'

'I still think I deserve one.'

'Shut up convict.'

'That's below the belt. I'm not a convict anymore.'

Holly decided she had had enough. 'Whatever Mulch. I've had enough for now. I'm going to get cleaned up, then clean this place up. That will take me all day,' she paused, and picked up a random case file off of her desk, 'Here, investigate that.'

Mulch muttered something unrepeatable and left the room. He decided it was in the best interests of his nose to not annoy the female elf. Which was a wise decision, as it happens.

Holly groaned in frustration as Mulch left the office. She had almost had it with him. It hadn't made her feel any better calling him a convict either. It had just caused her to have yet another painful reminder of Commander Root, another pang of guilt.

She headed towards the bathroom quickly; the blood and snot mixture was beginning to stink. She needed to get it off quickly; another property of dwarfs is that after prolonged periods of contact with living organisms other than dwarf noses dwarf snot becomes corrosive. It wouldn't corrode her office, but it would corrode her.

She washed it off as quickly as possible, but it still took an hour, and her cloths still stunk.

She resolved to go home and change as soon as she had cleaned her office up a little. The thing about dwarf sneezes is that they are like volcanic eruptions. Explosive volcanic eruptions. The walls of her office were covered with blood and snot. She sighed (again) as she got out her cleaning gear and cleaned up her room. I'm not going to bore you with the details of her cleaning up, let's just say it took four hours, and you couldn't get rid the stench no matter how hard you tried. Holly ended up spraying the entire room with about ten cans of air freshener, before leaving the office for the night.

She walked home quickly; amazingly people gave her a wide berth, and held their noses around her. She must smell pretty bad. Air freshener, sweat and dwarf snot aren't exactly like a bunch of lavender in smell.

She was extremely relieved to get home. The first thing she did was jump in the shower to clean off all of the smell. Amazingly it worked. She threw the clothes out; she hadn't really liked them anyway. Finally the smell was gone.

Holly had always gone for a run once a day for as long as she could remember, today was no different. She changed into her running kit, and left her house, locking the door behind her. She decided that today she would go for a run through the park.

She ran in silence, why wouldn't she, she had no one to talk to, after all. It was getting dark, but Holly wasn't duly concerned on that front. She always ran in the dark. About two kilometres after she left her house she began to hear someone running behind her. She wasn't really concerned about that, there were bound to be other people that decided to go out for a run, and she didn't own the park. Another couple of kilometres later this mystery person was still running behind her. Now she was beginning to find this suspicious. She sped up, and decided to do a bit of sprinting. Amazingly the person kept up with her; there weren't many people outside the LEP who could do that if they wanted to. There was no doubt about it; she was being followed. She stopped, and slowly turned around. She might as well be able to see what she was up against. As she suspected, her assailant was wearing a hood and a balaclava, along with black baggy clothing. It was impossible to tell who it was.

The shadowy figure shielded. This wasn't good. Whoever it was obviously had magic, and it was too dark to see the shimmering caused by shielding. Holly began to run. She was only a kilometre from her house; she could blend in to the darkness. If the fairy didn't have wings she might just make it. Just as Holly thought that she heard mechanical wings start up behind her. She could still make it, but it would be close. Holly tried to shield, but she didn't have any magic to shield; it took too long for civilians to get above ground so she hadn't completed the ritual; she had given the last of her magic to Mulch without realising. She might ask Trouble to bring her back an acorn or two in the sealed acorn units if she got a chance. Even if she could have shielded she wouldn't have; if her stalker had decided to shield, they probably had anti-shield filters. Although technically the filters were standard LEP issue only enough had made their way onto the black market for it to be likely this person would have some. She turned up her speed, now running at a full out sprint. She was the fastest LEP officer ever, or so the tests said, and she could only have got faster since the tests. It was then that her ankle managed to find an uneven piece of road, and she sprawled out on the pavement. A searing pain shot through her ankle, she had damaged it really bad, whatever she had done. She could hear the wings behind her, even if she couldn't see the fairy. She had to get out of here, and soon.

Holly picked herself up of the ground, ignoring the searing pain in her ankle and ducked into an alleyway, not what you generally do when you have an unknown fairy following you, but it was the only possible course of action for her, she had to loose the fairy, and soon.

Holly finally had her first piece of good luck all day, she could hear the sound of the wings fading; the fairy had not noticed her duck into the alley.

Holly counted to sixty and then emerged from the alley; barely able to walk on her injured ankle. She really missed running hot, but that was the price you paid for not being a LEP operative. She limped home and quickly as she could, collapsing onto her sofa as soon as she got the chance. She didn't forget to lock her door and all the windows before collapsing, of course. She fell asleep on her sofa in her running kit; she had no energy left.

Holly awoke the next morning to someone banging on her door. Her first thought was _oh no, it's the stalker;_ her second was _I'm still in my running kit, whoops;_ and her third was _oh, wait, Trouble was meant to be coming today_. It was at that moment the Trouble began to get frustrated with her.

'Holly Short, if you are in there open the door this instant!'

Holly got up and limped to the door. She had almost forgotten the pain in her ankle, but she couldn't now, it was so very bad.

Trouble was still hammering on her door while she undid the safety catch and opened it up.

He lifted his hand to hammer on it again, and opened his mouth to yell again, when he noticed that the door was open, and, standing in front of him, was a very dishevelled looking Holly, still in her running kit. He quickly grabbed her arm; she looked like she was going to fall over.

'I thought you went for your runs at night?' he asked.

'I do,' muttered Holly, now leaning on him, 'could you,' she gestured at her sofa.

Trouble realised what she wanted, 'Sure,' he replied leading her to her couch. He was very worried about her. She looked terrible, and she probably wouldn't ask for help, even if she needed it.

'Thanks,' Holly replied, and then asked, somewhat sheepishly, 'how long were you out there?'

'About ten minutes, but it doesn't matter.'

'It does, I'm sorry. I probably stink too, sorry.'

'What happened to you?'

'It doesn't matter. I'm going to take a shower, OK? There's some food and stuff in the kitchen, help yourself.'

'Holly, are you okay?'

'I'm fine I tell you, fine!' Holly was becoming hysterical. Trouble decided to leave it until after she had had her shower.

Trouble watched silently as Holly limped off to the shower. He wondered how she had done her ankle in so badly. It must be bad if she was actually limping on it. He'd almost forgotten that, being a civilian, she probably wouldn't have any magic. He resolved to offer to heal it for her, which would possibly earn him a broken nose, but he had to offer.

He decided to use Holly's invitation to her kitchen, not to see what he could eat, he'd probably just get a glass of water or something as an excuse, but to see if his suspicions were correct. His worst fears were confirmed as he looked into the fridge, only to see a lot of untouched food. Holly had looked extremely thin when he had seen her yesterday, and even thinner today. It looked like she had hardly eaten since she quit the LEP. He hoped that she wasn't going anorexic, but it looked like she might be.

He grabbed a glass of water and sat down on her couch, before she came out from her shower.

Holly came out of the shower in clean clothes and not stinking as much, so naturally she felt a little better. Her foot still hurt like hell though. She limped over to the couch, and plopped down next to Trouble, who was drinking a glass of water.

'So…' began Holly, not really sure what to talk about.

'What happened to you Holly? You didn't get that ankle that bad easily.'

'I tripped.'

'I don't believe that's all there is too it. You know you can tell me anything, don't you Holly?' Trouble was genuinely worried about her by this stage. She didn't just trip and she was being extremely evasive.

'It doesn't matter.'

'It does Holly. Please tell me. I want to help you if there's something wrong.' Holly's telephone chose that exact moment to ring.

'Can you answer that please Trouble?'

'Sure.'

Trouble walked over to the phone and picked it up.

'Hello,' he said. He was more than a little surprised to hear the voice that replied. Every fairy in Haven knew that voice. Trouble wasn't scared of it, he knew Artemis wasn't a danger to the people anymore, but that didn't mean he wasn't slightly shocked that Artemis was ringing Holly at her home.

'Hello,' replied Artemis Fowl.

'How do you know Holly's number?' asked Trouble.

'I hacked into Foaly's phone system, because it was important that I talk to you.'

'You mean Holly?'

'No. You. I assume you are Trouble? The person Mulch was talking about eavesdropping on yesterday?'

'Yes, Trouble Kelp. Why do you want to talk to me?'

'You're there with Holly right now, aren't you?'

'Yes.'

'And you think something is wrong with her?'

'The state she's in? Of course I do.'

'Who is it?' interrupted Holly.

'Excuse me Fowl. It's Artemis Fowl, he said he knew I'd be here and he wanted to talk to me. Do you mind?'

'Don't believe anything he tells you,' warned Holly.

This flummoxed Trouble a lot; he had thought that the two were more on speaking terms after their last adventure. He lifted the phone back to his ear.

'Well?'

'I think she gave me permission to talk to you.'

'Good. She's in a bad state, isn't she?'

'How do you know? What did you do to her?'

'I didn't do anything to her. Calm down. If I didn't know better I'd say you were acting like her boyfriend.'

'I'm not her boyfriend. I just care about her.'

'Sure you do. Anyway, I was talking to her and Mulch yesterday. It's probably best you don't know how if you are a LEP operative. Anyway, she was covered in blood and dwarf snot, because Mulch had sneezed after she broke his nose because he came up behind her after _and this is the important bit_ three bombs went off in her office. Three bio-bombs.'

'She told me not to believe what you say.'

'You can ask Mulch, this did actually happen. Believe me Kelp.'

'That doesn't explain her ankle.'

'What ankle?'

'You don't know about that?'

'No, it must have happened after I talked to her. Maybe she has a stalker. I'm serious.'

'I have to go Artemis.'

'Are you going to talk to her?'

'Yes. Goodbye.'

With that Trouble hung up the phone. He turned to Holly.

'You told the mud boy about the bombs and not me?'

'I'm not telling the LEP Trouble, I'm fine.'

'That's why you can hardly walk on your ankle.'

'You don't believe me?'

'Not that you are fine. What happened to you Holly? I want the truth. Please.'

A/N: I don't know what exactly the stalker is going to do to Holly next, any suggestions? I'll come up with something, of course.

Well, I did say replies were at the end of this chapter, so here they are. A great big thanks to everyone who reviewed and is planning on clicking on the little button and reviewing. I don't write just for the reviews, but I enjoy getting them.

_Review Replies:_

_RaevanDawn: _Thanks so much. My first review for this story, thanks. Someone noticed the humour! Thanks.

_angelmayumi : _Thanks. I am updating.

_refloc: _Thanks. I know everyone is setting their stories for six months later… it seems to be the time that pops into everyone's head, besides, any longer is too long for what I have planned… I can't tell you what though, that would ruin the story. Only nine chapters! I'm devastated. I'm looking forward to this story that poses so much trouble to you. Run on sentences, I like them, but for some reason teachers don't. Would you believe I lost two whole marks on my assignment because I had a sentence that was too long? Devastating, it really was. Thanks for reviewing.

_Helltanz98: _Thanks for reviewing.

_Kates Master: _Yes, Holly/Trouble forever. If I told you if Root was coming back it would ruin the story, but look carefully, there are clues, if you really want to know.

_sergeantstan: _No, not Grub. But I'm not telling you who. There are clues, look carefully if you really want to know. Then again, maybe only I can see them, since I know who the stalker is…

_maddisonavenue: _Thanks. Yes, it is Holly/Trouble, I'm making no secret of that. besides, AH makes me sick. And yes, there should be more Holly/Trouble.

Again, Big thank yous to everyone who reviewed. Hope you enjoyed this chapter.


	3. Really Bad Movies and Unexpected Trips

Disclaimer: I don't own anything that I don't own, because if I did own what I didn't own I wouldn't have to be sitting here typing that I didn't own anything that I don't own. What I do own is everything that isn't what I don't own.

A/N: So, I updated. But I'm still deciding whether I should do weekly or two-weekly updates. I'm more likely to always update on time if it's two weekly, because I have some of this written, but I still need to write a fair bit more. Opinions welcome. I'm also taking suggestions on whether I should give a small preview at the end of chapters as to what is going to come. Thanks to everyone who reviewed. Replies are at the end of this chapter.

**Chapter Three: Really Bad Movies and Unexpected Trips**

'_Not that you are fine. What happened to you Holly? I want the truth. Please.'_

Holly had no more strength to fight against Trouble. Not when he obviously cared about her. She settled down on to her sofa next to him.

'Fine. What do you want to know?'

'Start with the bombs.'

'I walked into my office and there was some holly on my desk. The three beads were bio-bombs. I recognised them and got out of the office, then waited for the three explosions. I went back in to investigate, and then punched Mulch in the nose when he came to see what was happening. Mulch sneezed before I could heal him. I healed him after that, and then Artemis called. I had to explain to him why I was covered in blood in snot.'

'Why didn't you heal your ankle if you had magic to heal his nose?'

'I used the last of my magic on him without realising.'

'Okay. So you got the snot off before it went corrosive right?'

'Yea.'

'So then what about your ankle?'

'When I'd cleaned my office up I came home and decided to go for a run. After a couple of kilometres somebody was following me. But they kept following me. Even after I put on a burst of speed.'

Trouble could understand why this worried her. She was the fastest LEP officer. There weren't many fairies outside the LEP who could keep up with even a slow LEP officer.

'This fairy kept following me, so I turned around, to tell him to quit it, not that I thought he would. I'd already worked out I was being followed. He was wearing classic "I don't want to be seen kit". He shielded, so I ran, that's when I realised I had no magic. I kept running hard out, then I tripped and fell. That's when I did my ankle in. I lost him somehow, then I got home. I think I fell asleep after that. I all remember is being woken up by you.'

Trouble knew she was telling the truth. There were very little things that could cause Holly to do her ankle in.

'Where's your ankle?' he asked.

'What are you going to do to it?'

'Heal it. Do you want to even more damage to it?'

'No. Here.' Holly reluctantly lifted her leg up and her ankle towards Trouble. He was right, no matter how little she wanted to accept that.

Trouble was actually quite surprised that Holly hadn't clobbered him for suggesting that he heal her. Her ankle must really hurt her. He took her ankle gently in his hands, and placed it on his knee. Holly winced. Very gently he drew her sock off of it. She winced again. It was horribly swollen and red. More than twice the size it should be.

'You didn't even put ice on it, did you?'

'Fairies hate the cold Trouble. Besides, I was tired.'

Trouble sighed, typical Holly. He carefully placed his hand on her ankle and muttered 'heal'. His own blue sparks slid down his fingers and into Holly's ankle. He wasn't nearly as good at healing as her, but it was sufficient. The ankle un-swelled and Holly relaxed slightly. She went to take her ankle off of his knee. But he held up his hand to stop her.

'Don't move it for a bit. Let it rest.'

'You're worse than Root was in the Arctic,' joked Holly. She immediately wished she hadn't said it. She felt a pang of sadness. But she didn't move her ankle.

'So,' began Trouble, 'What do you want to do today?'

Trouble resolved to ask Holly about her eating habits at another point in time. He'd just try to make sure she ate something today.

'I don't know. It was your idea.'

The pair resolved to go and see a movie. The movie was called Mr. Greeds, and was about a man from a small town who went around murdering his relatives to get their inheritance.

They walked into the movie theatre. The name was oh so original. HCMT (Haven City Movie Theatre) and went to buy the over priced popcorn. Everyone knows that the popcorn at movie theatres is over-priced, but they buy it anyway, it's part of the experience.

'I might not get popcorn today, it's too expensive,' Holly began. Trouble, with his idea of Holly being anorexic immediately jumped into a plan to get her to eat the popcorn.

'I'll buy it for you if you want,' he said casually.

'No, I just don't want some today.'

'But you have to eat the popcorn.'

'Fine, I'll buy some just to make you happy.'

Holly was beginning to wonder why Trouble was so insistent that she eat the popcorn. She was beginning to wonder if he was going insane.

Trouble was beginning to wonder if Holly was going insane. Who wouldn't want movie popcorn? At least she was eating it, if somewhat reluctantly.

The movie turned out to be the worst movie ever made. Quite sad really, considering it was meant to be one of the best ever made. A lot of people must have wasted money going to that one. There simply wasn't enough blood in it. Being LEP officers and generally gung-ho and the such, both Holly and Trouble loved gory movies. Don't ask why. It's just one of those unexplainable stereotypes that seem to make sense.

Holly was greatly cheered up, even though the movie was hopeless. She decided that she should take a day off work more often. It was amazing how free the feeling of being off work was.

'That sucked,' voiced Trouble, as they left the movie theatre.

'Don't bother telling me. I noticed.'

'Sorry, it was my idea to see that.'

'Not at all what it was promoted as. They shouldn't have the word 'murder' in the trailer if they aren't going to make it bloody.'

'I agree.'

'So what was with you with wanting me to eat popcorn?' Holly knew she should probably just let it go, but she couldn't, it had become her thing since she had become a private investigator. She just couldn't let things go. Another stereotypical trait she was developing. She already had developed some of the cop ones; not all, thankfully.

Trouble was instantly uncomfortable, not many things could make him uncomfortable, but the thought of Holly trying to get back at you could strike fear into the hearts of the bravest Retrieval officers. Besides, Trouble didn't want Holly knowing exactly what he was worried about; not just yet. 'Uh, I was trying to make you day off good?' It was almost a question; asking Holly if she would accept that answer.

Holly didn't believe him. Not for one second; but he didn't seem to have any hidden agenda, so she decided to lay off him for now. He had gotten that look on his face, the one people got when they thought she was going to punch them. She nearly laughed, that look was comical no matter how many times she saw it. And she saw it a lot.

'So, you want to go get some grub? Since the movie was a total washout. I'll pay.'

Holly was beginning to wonder what on earth it was with Trouble offering to buy her food. We all know Holly Short isn't one to keep her opinions to herself.

Trouble couldn't help himself. He knew Holly was cottoning on to what he was doing, trying to make her eat and all that, but he had to try. He was too worried about her not to. He had convinced himself that Holly was going anorexic.

'You have developed a d'arvitting obsession with forcing food down my d'arvitting throat, Martha Kelp.'

'No fair Holly. My name's Trouble now.' Trouble regretted more than anything his fathers moment of drunkenness, registering his name as Martha rather than Arthur. He had insisted on having his name changed to Trouble at his manhood ceremony. Very few people knew his original name, Holly being one of those people. She pulled it out of the bag whenever she got angry at him, it was one of those things that irked him about her. He'd almost learned to live with it. Almost. He still started whining like a five year old whenever she used his original name.

'Stop acting like a baby. I'll eat if I'm hungry.'

'My bad. So do you want to go and eat?' Holly supposed it was the best she was going to get out of him. He rarely apologised with more than the words "my bad", and it was even rarer that he meant them. It was obvious that he didn't mean them in this case, for some odd reason he wanted to force her to eat. Odd really.

'Yea, I suppose. Anywhere but Spud's.'

'Don't even talk about that place. Thinking about it makes me sick.'

'Haha, I don't get how those tourists can eat that stuff.'

'True.'

'So… Where do you want to go then?'

'How about that Chinese shop. You know, the one that was there before that new food court?'

'Yea, their food was always real good.'

'It isn't an eat in place though. You can't force the food down my throat,' joked Holly.

'I'm not trying to force the food down your throat.' Trouble knew this was a lie, but Holly was cottoning on to him.

'Sure you aren't.'

'But you are coming back to my place to eat.'

'You live on the other side of Police Plaza from me,' moaned Holly. The city of Haven was basically set out around Police Plaza, because that was the original building that had to be there to stop the mud people discovering the people. The city had kind of spread out from there, and it was basically a given that LEP officers lived somewhere around the Plaza, and not too far away. In actuality the city of Haven wasn't that large, it took little over three hours to travel across (i.e. walk. What do you think the fairies are? Barbarians? What sort of idiots drove when you would just get traffic jams because everyone was sitting on their fat posteriors? It also got rid of possibilities of obesity. Mud people have a lot to answer for, allowing people to become obese and obsessed with their vehicles)., Because fairies had become used to being quite close to everything they detested having to travel further than fifteen minutes to anything, inside the metropolis, naturally, in the chutes, they were used to longer journey's. It was a given when you lived under the earth. Holly did not want to have to undertake the thirty-five minute walk from Trouble's apartment to her own. Of course Holly was forgetting something.

'Holly, I moved about a month ago. Remember?'

Holly kept forgetting that. She just couldn't get used to the idea of Trouble not living on the other side of the Plaza.

'Oh yeah, my bad.'

Trouble was worried about Holly. She just couldn't get it into her head that he had moved. He had decided to move for no apparent reason, and he had found the perfect apartment, down a street he never knew existed. He didn't really have time for apartment shopping, so it was highly likely that any apartment he had seen would have been perfect for him. Going out for a run a couple of days after buying the apartment he ran into Holly. Literally. He had go complete the ritual after using quite a bit of magic on healing the broken nose Holly gave him before she realised who it was. No doubt he would have gotten even more of a beating if she hadn't known him. Needless to say Sool wasn't too happy. It was actually quite strange, he had seemed almost worried about Holly when he had said he had run into her. Or was worried as Sool can be. His exact words were "You didn't hurt Short did you? I don't need her in here causing a fuss". Like I said, as worried as beings without feelings can be. Anyway, it turned out that Holly lived around the corner from where Trouble now lived. Only a five minute walk. Yet Holly seemed surprised every time she saw him. He decided she must just have so much on her plate with her PI business with Mulch. Frond knows that the little reprobate left most of the work to Holly. At least the mud boy appeared to be worried about her and helping her out.

It was at that point something in Holly's pocket started ringing. The communicator, the other one of the pair she had given Artemis. Usually she had it set to vibrate, but she had a feeling it might look slightly odd if her pocket started vibrating, so she had it set to ring.

'Uhh, Trouble, you might not want to hear this.'

'Doesn't matter. I'm off duty, and I'm not going to help Sool if I have a say in the matter,' he grinned, 'If Julius were around I might not ignore it.'

Trouble immediately regretted saying that. It opened the still raw wound in him, and he knew it would be worse for Holly, she had seen him die. But it was true. He would not have disregarded law breaking and not told the Commander, even when he was off duty. Yet the words also had a special significance to Holly.

'If Julius was alive then half the Koboi thing wouldn't have happened the way it did and Artemis either wouldn't have his memories, would be a friend to the people, or I would hate him.'

'Holly, that's not what I meant.'

'Right. Well… I'm taking this call.'

That signalled that their discussion was over. Besides, Holly had left Artemis waiting on the end of a ringing communicator for long enough.

'Hi,' she said as she finally answered the call.

Artemis was relieved; he was beginning to think that Holly was never going to pick up the communicator, before she picked it up, naturally. He wasn't an idiot, after all.

'Hello Holly. My apologies at interrupting your day off, but I was wondering how you were.'

'What, not even any information for me?'

'You said we could talk socially one day.'

'In the middle of one of Haven's busiest streets probably isn't the best place, Mud Boy.'

'So you're still with Trouble?'

'Yes. Why would you want to know?' Artemis sighed, typical Holly, a comeback for almost every occasion, although not as good as some of the comebacks he came up with. He had to admit they were excellent, some of his comebacks. What St. Bartleby's wouldn't do to have him as the rebutter (third speaker) on their debating team; unfortunately for them Artemis Fowl does not get involved in School activities.

'You know this call is illegal, right? And Trouble is a LEP Officer.'

'Still, I should let you go. Have fun on your date.'

'I AM NOT ON A DATE YOU NEANDERTHAL,' screeched Holly. She appears rather sensitive about these things, thought Artemis, struggling to hide a grin. Criminal Masterminds do not grin, and they most certainly do not use the word 'lollipops'.

He hung up the communicator, or rather, pushed the disconnect button. It appeared even the great Artemis Fowl ended up using some of the typical Human clichés. You don't even hang up the phone really, unless it is mounted on a wall higher than you are tall, technically you put it down. Artemis shook his head, it was actually quite amusing looking at how illogical some aspects of the English language were.

Artemis decided to work on some of his computer software. Recently it had become his goal to design software that would make the software of companies such as Windows and Apple by far obsolete, thereby bankrupting the companies. The head honchos of the companies had been far too rich, far too long. The only family with the right to be rich and stay rich, in Artemis Fowl's mind at least, is the Fowl family.

The programming and coding was easy for Artemis, and as he typed in the codes as if it were his second language, which it basically was for him, he was internally laughing at the idiots who needed university degrees to be able to do this and yet still weren't very good at it. Idiots.

After a few minutes of blissful peace and quiet to work on his programme which Artemis knew would not last long (one could rarely go uninterrupted for long in Fowl Manor) Juliet began to rap on his door. "_Told you so"_ the more childish part of his brain began to tell the part which had hoped Artemis was just being a pessimist. Artemis ordered the two parts of his brain to be quiet, with yet another part of his brain. Artemis wondered how many parts he had in his brain. Good question really, considering most people were only bright enough to think with one or two parts of their brain.

'Artemis, your Mother wants to see you outside by the Kowhai trees.'

Artemis's mother had recently developed rather an obsession with planting trees from different countries in their garden, anything but trees from Ireland. Worrying really. Among the trees she had planted were Kowhai and Kauri from New Zealand and Wattle from Australia. Very worrying; but that was Angeline Fowl for you.

'Alright. Thank you Juliet.' Juliet huffed as she walked away down the hall to prepare the lemonade Mrs Fowl had ordered; Artemis was always oh so formal. It wasn't like she was a servant. Juliet sometimes wondered who Artemis was talking to in his room. After all, Artemis and Butler had decided not to give her memories back, so she had no idea that the fairies existed. They had decided that, since she was always off on some wrestling tour or another, she did not need the information in her head as something she had to remember not to tell. Butler also reasoned that, with Sool as commander, the LEP may turn up at any time with big murderous weapons, and try to wipe his and Master Artemis' mind again. Butler didn't want Juliet to have to go through that. He also didn't want her remembering about his slight...aging condition. It wasn't that bad, after all.

Artemis stood up, not before closing his programmes. It wouldn't be good if his father found out that he was still trying to bankrupt companies, especially after he had been grounded for doing exactly that three weeks ago. How on earth (or under it, he reminded himself) did his father find out that Artemis was bankrupting companies for a little light relief? And where on earth (or under it) did he get the idea of _grounding_ Artemis? It wasn't like Artemis was a normal teenager, so why should he get normal teenagers punishment? His father knew he wasn't the most social of creatures, so he hadn't grounded him from going out. He had grounded him from using electronics (i.e. computers, mp3 players, ipods, DVD players, Televisions, Cell phones, Radios, etc.). Not that Artemis really used electronics other than his Computer and His Cell Phone on a regular basis, except security camera's, and he needed his computer to use them, besides, technically his father had banned him from using the Manor's security cameras. Not that it stopped Artemis. The point was that Artemis had been _grounded_. He suffered severe separation anxiety, he hadn't realised quite how much of a friend his computer was to him; he had been overjoyed to get it back.

Artemis walked out of his room, through the Manor and out of the back door which could be found in the kitchen. Artemis looked at the oven. He knew how it was supposed to work, in theory, however, he had never tried. He had read that ovens could be extremely temperamental, and that you had to learn how to use them. Apparently cooking was one of those skills that could not be entirely mastered from a book. It would be interesting to discover if this was true. One day, he decided, one day I will learn how to cook, just to prove that I can do anything if I want to.

Brooding on things that Criminal Masterminds really wouldn't be caught dead thinking about (maybe Artemis should take a leaf out of Foaly's book and start wearing a tin-foil hat, just to make sure that people couldn't read his mind. After all, it would be embarrassing if some of his …associates… found out that he had decided to learn how to cook) Artemis walked over to where his mother was sitting, or rather, reclining, in one of those ridiculous beach chairs. She even had the brightly coloured drink with the umbrella sticking out of it sitting on the table made of wood painted white next to her. _"We aren't in Fiji" _thought Artemis. Angeline Fowl had recently decided that, instead of travelling all over the world, the world would come to her. Hence the obsession with trees from around the world.

'Arty, darling, how are you?'

'I'm well, thank you, mother. How are you?

'I'm fine Arty,' and although Angeline Fowl smiled as she said that, the smile was masking a wave of grief that she felt every time Artemis spoke to her so formally.

'Arty darling, why are you so formal? I'm you mum for goodness sake, you don't have to be all formal,' Angeline was almost pleading with her son at this point. She so wanted him to open up his cold exterior and let her in.

'You can't just expect me to change mother. Formality was the way things were run around here for a long time.' Artemis felt for his mother. He wasn't _that_ bad, he didn't enjoy making living creatures suffer, and he really did care about his mother, he just wasn't really a people person. In fact, no matter how hard he tried, he just kept shutting people out; he had never perfected the art of letting people in and putting his trust in them. He decided to make a genuine effort, for his mother's sake, he decided to try and open up to her.

'Mother, um,' Artemis scolded himself, he was meant to always know what to say; _um_ isn't even a word. He decided to try again 'Mother, I, I don't respect people, I don't trust humans, I've been let down too many times.' There, he'd said it, it wasn't that hard, was it? It was worth it. Angeline's face positively lit up, her son was finally sharing something with her.

'Arty, now you mention it, I've been planning a little weekend for you and your father…'

"_Uh oh," _thought Artemis, _"I should have known, Mother always has some hidden agenda, and she can play me like a fiddle." _Artemis scolded himself, more clichés, next thing you knew he'd been talking in a pompous old-style top o' the morning English accent and drinking a cup of tea with his pinky finger sticking out. Don't ask how he made that association; this is Artemis Fowl we are talking about.

Artemis senior amazingly decided that moment to walk out the back door. _"What an astounding coincidence," _thought Artemis glumly. Knowing his mother, whatever she had planned was not technologically orientated, and had something to do with _father son bonding. _She seemed to have an obsession with _family life_ at the moment. Artemis found this distinctly worrying; he was being treated more and more like a normal teenager every day. And in case you didn't notice, Artemis Fowl is not an ordinary teenager.

'Angeline, did you tell him?'

"_Aha," _thought Artemis, with grim triumph, _"something is going on." _It wasn't as if he hadn't been certain of the fact as soon as his mother had mentioned a little weekend.

'I mentioned it, but I haven't told him the details yet.'

'Well we should probably do that; it is in a week, after all.'

A/N: The end of that chapter. I'm going to tell you that we meet up with the stalker in the next chapter, though we don't find out who he is. Sorry that this chapter is mostly irrelevant description, but I felt it necessary to the overall plot.

_Review Replies:_

_refloc: _Umm, thanks. Nice long chapters for this story. I have decided. Considering this story is most likely going to end up a lot longer than my other story.

_angelmayumi: _clues as to the identity of the stalker in the next chapter. Holly and Trouble will probably end up hooking up, but that isn't going to be exactly central to the plot.

_wackywildcrazy: _Thanks. I'm honoured. Clues as to the identity of the stalker in the next chapter.

_CoffeeAndCherryBrandy:_ Nearly made me hurl too, don't worry. I really don't know what the appeal of Trouble is. I think for me it is that there is so much room to develop his character. He could be almost like an OC, except you know just some things about him. And we all know he is Holly's friend. At least we do if we've read her interview in the Files. If you see him as a boring individual, I suppose that is your interpretation. Really, I see him as quite an exciting individual who is really good at his job. And quite good looking, in a pointy sort of way.

_KatesMaster: _Opal's still in a cell. But there will be clues as to the identity of the stalker in the next chapter.

_Stiggy: _Would I tell you if it was Root? Tissue. Dwarf's happen to always have a couple of tissues in their pockets, for that exact reason. Or at least, that's what I decided. Or dwarfs could immune to the effects of their own snot? I might stick with the immunity. Good question though. Forrest Gump, right? I saw that for the first time last weekend. Very proud of myself. Great movie. Feel free to order me to update, most of this just comes out. I only write something more than once or edit it when I have writers block. I try to, but it just stuffs it up. What you get is what came out of my head through my fingers.

Sorry if I missed anyone. Thanks to everyone who reviewed. Please review. Till next time.


	4. Presents and Chinese

Disclaimer: I don't own anything that I don't own, because if I did own what I didn't own I wouldn't have to be sitting here typing that I didn't own anything that I don't own. What I do own is everything that isn't what I don't own.

A/N: I know, I am extremely late updating. If you'll believe it I actually had to resort to downloading a new internet browser to update at all, this has been sitting as an uploaded document for a few days and I couldn't update. Sorry. Anyway, I must inform you that the next update, most likely, won't be occurring for a month or more. I'm sorry, I have it written, but I have decided to keep a certain number of chapters ahead of myself with the writing, and it is highly unlikely I'm going to find enough time to write more before I am due to update. Feel free to be angry at me for this, or, better yet, blame the person who sets exams. I'm very sorry, but, rest assured, I will not be giving up on this story. I know exactly what is going to happen. At least for the next four or five chapters, probably more. Anyway, I'm sure you don't want to hear my ramblings about what I will not be updating, so on with the chapter. (PS: thanks for reading this, if you bothered, and thanks for reading the chapter, if you're going to bother)

**Chapter Four: Presents and Chinese**

_**Stalker's Current Location**_

_**Haven City**_

He sighed as he picked up his phone and put it down again, deciding to make his call later. He'd picked up the habit of sighing from Holly, he had been watching her almost constantly from the button hole camera he'd installed in her house when he had the opportunity. Holly hadn't noticed a thing, naturally. She only became suspicious when she had a reason to be suspicious. He was glad she had decided she didn't have a reason to be suspicious, it could have led to a lot of explaining, and he wasn't ready to deal with Holly yet. Besides, it probably wouldn't be best if Holly knew that he had a slight, ah, obsession with her. Her beautiful figure, her nut-brown, perfect skin, her crew-cut auburn hair, her cherubic lips, and her fiery personality. He really did think she was perfect. He drew a picture of her from its hiding place. It was one of his favourites. A few days after the raid on her house he had returned, using the key codes the LEP had been given in order to get into her house to reclaim all LEP property, and taken Holly's photo albums. He traced an unnaturally long and skinny finger over Holly's face, wishing he could actually be touching her skin. He imagined how it would feel, firm under his fingers. Yet Holly thought he hated her, and she definitely hated him. He wondered why that was, when all he had tried to do was keep her off active duty in any way possible, he didn't want her to ruin her perfect looks, she needed to save them for him.

Time to give Holly another surprise, this time to try and persuade her to eat meat. He knew Holly was a vegetarian, it was in her file, which he, naturally, had access to. It was common for fairies to be vegetarian, but it wasn't exactly good for them. For example, fifty percent of fairies in Haven were highly deficient in Iron, and eighty percent of the fairies in Haven had some sort of Iron deficiency. Hence being Iron deficient was not a reason a LEP officer could be declared not fit for active duty, or the LEP would have hardly any officers. Foaly was supposedly working on an iron supplement which would solve the problem, but he had yet to find one with no side effects that worked exactly as the iron found in meat worked. Foaly too was a vegetarian, of course, but refused to allow the human iron supplements into Haven, as they were not up to his health standards. No wonder Mud Peoples life expectancy was so short, the amount of shit they pumped their bodies full of. He grabbed his little _presents_ he had ready for Holly, and left on the quick walk to her house. No one questioned him, and if anyone did, he would just say he was going to question her about why bio bombs were going off in her office. He knew, naturally, because he had planted them. He had known the wouldn't kill her, because he had specially armed them to not kill anything larger than a spider, but he had needed them as a distraction, to plant yet another button hole camera, this time in her office. He would say some civilians saw the blue flashes and reported it to the LEP. A bomb in the office of a former LEP officer would warrant him coming to visit her; the presents were safely hidden in a bag.

He punched in her key codes, they hadn't changed, naturally, but he would have managed to procure them, he had his sources, after all; and slipped into her house, leaving his _presents_ sitting on her dining table. He slipped out again, and returned to his office.

He picked up his phone again and punched in the number.

'What?' asked an irritated voice.

'The stuff, I've got the cash, I need the stuff now, I can only play these games for so long. I want her.'

'I'll drop it under the tree in that park near the chick's house.'

'No. I tried to get her without the stuff there last night. Somewhere else.'

'Idiot. I don't know your plan, and I don't want to. But wait for the stuff. Do you want to get caught?'

'I want the stuff. I want her.'

'Don't do it another day, you idiot. She'll know something's up. Wait a while.'

'I'll wait, but I have to do it soon. Hopefully something will come up that can… distract her for a bit.'

'Your life in the slammer. I'll drop it in the trash skip outside the LEP.'

'Unmarked bag?'

'Naturally.'

'No prints on it?'

'Checked myself.'

A system had recently been developed in the criminal underworld, allowing criminals to check to see if they had left any fingerprints on anything. The LEP didn't know about this yet. Or, at least, they thought they didn't. Of course, fingerprints wouldn't matter once he had her, but until then… A few, shall we say, teasers, would have to do.

He hung up. There was nothing more to say. His contact had come through. A few hours later he grabbed an unmarked bag out of the rubbish skip outside the LEP as he left. The plan would commence, soon.

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_**Holly & Trouble's Present Location**_

_**Haven City**_

Holly put the communicator back into her pocket after Artemis disconnected. She would have thought a bit about the call, as she had developed a habit of doing, but she was with Trouble, so that could wait.

She was still fuming inwardly that Artemis had said she was on a date with Trouble. Sure, they were great friends, but they weren't together or anything; that would just be scary.

Beside Holly, Trouble was struggling to hide a grin. Holly was probably the only person on or under the earth that would dare to call Artemis Fowl a Neanderthal. He didn't know much about Fowl, but he knew that the Mud Mountain, Butler, was still around, even if he wasn't quite as deadly as he had been, not that he couldn't still kill people a hundred ways without the use of weaponry. No one would dare insult Artemis Fowl, if they feared the retribution of Butler. No one except Holly and probably Foaly. Commander Root would have too, but he was dead, gone, extinguished, recycled, lifeless, passed on, defunct, extinct.

'What are you grinning at?' asked Holly. Obviously Trouble hadn't hidden his grin well enough. Oh dear. Maybe he should run now before she punched him.

'Won't Fowl be mad you called him a Neanderthal?'

'Not if he values his nose.'

Trouble winced; he had been on the receiving end of more than one broken nose, courtesy of Holly. They were painful.

'What did he do to deserve that?' Holly didn't break just anyone's nose. Well, she did, but she usually had a reason, unless she just hated the person. Hate was the reason for quite a few of the broken noses Chix Verbil had received, not that he didn't have it coming. He almost felt like punching Chix's nose when he wouldn't leave women alone. Especially Holly, but she was good enough at breaking his nose without needing help.

'Said we were on a date.'

'We're not,' said Trouble indignantly. He liked Holly, sure, but as a great friend, not as a girlfriend.

Holly was slightly indignant, even though she didn't want to be on a date with Trouble. The fact that he so quickly denied it made her wonder.

'You're not gay are you?' asked Holly, almost laughing. Of course, the People didn't have a problem with gays, they weren't as one minded as humans. Besides, science had proved that it wasn't someone's fault they were gay, they were just born that way; just like they were born straight. Holly still found it quite funny when one of the LEP officers announced they were gay, which didn't happen, not because it was odd, she just couldn't take any relationship seriously, especially when one of the guys used to walk in and announce they had a new girlfriend.

Trouble was gob smacked. Holly didn't honestly think he was gay, did she? Of course he wasn't, he looked at hot girls like the rest of the guys.

'What makes you think I'm gay? Just because I say I'm not on a date with you…'

'Don't overreact, I was kidding 'cause you answered so quickly.'

'I didn't want you to think that I was one of those guys who'll do anything for a date. Besides, I like my nose the shape it is.'

'Oh,' Holly didn't have a witty comeback for this. In fact, she didn't have any comeback at all. 'Sorry.'

'All good,' replied Trouble, 'So, you want to go get the food?'

'Yea, let's. And I'm not going to forget where you live this time.'

'Sure you aren't,' muttered Trouble under his breath, not loud enough for Holly to hear.

They went to the takeaway shop, without any further significant incident, and accept for a slight debate over what food to choose (Holly wanted Chow Mein and Trouble wanted Fried Rice) there was no significant incident in the entire trip back to Trouble's house and to his dining table. They chose smorgasbords, if you wanted to know, then they both got a little bit of everything they wanted, no arguments. It worked really well, the smorgasbords, I mean.

Trouble grabbed a couple of forks from his kitchen. You don't need a knife to eat the Chinese food they had. The Chinese food was very similar to the food from the Mud Man country of China, and was actually where the name originated, given the food was introduced to the People by the fairies that lived underneath the country China. In fact, the food was exactly the same, except for fairy variety was vegetarian.

The two elves sat down to eat. Trouble watched Holly carefully; she had ordered the smallest possible smorgasbord, a small. It wasn't like she was normally; quite often at Police Plaza after a particularly strenuous mission she could eat as much as some of the guys could after a mission. She did generally tend to eat less, but not much less. She was naturally slim, and she was active enough to work it all off, even if she wasn't naturally slim. He hadn't commented at the time, because he knew she was almost onto his little scheme to try and stop her becoming totally anorexic. Holly was barely picking at her food. He decided now was the time to confront her, he couldn't put if off any longer.

'You know Holly,' he said casually, 'you could have told me you didn't want Chinese.'

'Why would I do that when I did want Chinese?' asked Holly tentatively.

'Then why aren't you eating it?' asked Trouble, taking the offensive. This had to be done. He couldn't just spend the rest of his life (and we all know how long a fairies life is) trying to force Holly to eat.

'What? I am.'

'You've barely even picked at it. I saw your kitchen when I got that glass of water, there's all this old uneaten food. You've been getting thinner and thinner since Julius died. What's wrong? You know you can tell me anything, don't you Holly?'

Holly sat silently throughout his speech, looking calculatingly at him. When he finished his speech she took a breath. She didn't really know how to respond, so she decided to buy herself some time.

'You looked through my fridge? Who do you think you are, Trouble Kelp, that you think you have the right to go through my things?'

'I… you…,' Trouble couldn't think of what to say. He decided to not lie to her, to tell the truth, he had a feeling any lying would get him in even more trouble with her. 'Alright, I looked in your fridge, because I was worried about you. You really are so thin. Why aren't you eating?'

Holly still needed time. She had noticed she hadn't been eating much, but she didn't think anything of it. She thought it was just because she wasn't working as hard anymore (in actual reality she was working harder than she used to), she really wasn't doing it on purpose. Yet what Trouble was saying made sense, in a round about sort of way. Not that she wasn't extremely annoyed that he had violated her privacy. She decided to delay, so she could get just a little more time to think it out. Trouble was going to escape a broken nose on this one.

'You violated my privacy, I should leave right now, I…' she stopped. She was going to say that she should never trust him again, but somehow she knew it had been for her own good.

Trouble looked at her with just the right amount of regret in his features; he remained silent, waiting for her to talk. He had said what he needed to say to her, it was her choice what she did with it now.

The long silence was broken by Holly. She sighed, took a deep breath, and looked at Trouble.

'I…I think… think that,' it was hard for her. She never opened up to anyone without a lot of persuading, and even then it was hard for her. She wasn't going to fall to pieces or anything; Holly Short didn't do that.

Trouble could see she was on the verge of opening up to him. He would help her in anyway possible, but he didn't think she would go to pieces. The tone she was using, even when she was stuttering, was cautious, yet somehow firm, believable. If she ever came back to the LEP he would see about sending her on a negotiator course, she really was good at talking calmly and reassuringly; even under a great deal of pressure.

'I think that… that. OK, I know that, almost every food item reminds me of a time with Commander Root, with Julius. Every time I pick something up to eat it, I remember him, remember a good time with him. I know people always tell you to hold onto the good memories of a person, but it isn't helping me,' she looked up at him and smiled weakly, she was spilling her guts now.

Trouble help but marvel at how she could still say something remotely funny. That was the Holly he knew. At least her personality wasn't disappearing as quickly as her flesh.

'It's just hard. I miss him. And it's my fault he died.'

Trouble sensed it was time for him to say something. He leaned across the table and gently placed his hand on Holly's. He wasn't entirely skilled at comforting people or not saying the most inappropriate thing at the most inappropriate time; but he sensed Holly needed him to try.

'Holly, you didn't kill him. It isn't your fault. It's that little bitch Opal Koboi's fault. You did your best to stop it. Nobody could have done more. She even played on your desire to help people. She's just evil. We all miss him, he was like a father to all of us; but he wouldn't want you to make yourself sick over his death; he wouldn't want his death to affect anyone's life.'

Trouble's speech was really touching for Holly, he didn't usually put words together in that way, and he rarely opened up as much he had to say that. She was glad that he only did come out of it when he needed to; and she was glad that he had chosen to do so now.

Holly let out a small sniff, but she held the sobs in. She was still grieving, she knew that, and she thought she may have just moved through a stage.

Trouble smiled at her encouragingly, 'you want to talk about it some more?'

'You know I'm not anorexic now, right?' asked Holly.

'How did you know I thought you were anorexic?' asked Trouble. He had known that Holly was onto him, but not that she knew exactly what he thought she had. He didn't walk around speaking his thoughts aloud, did he?

'Every time someone thinks a girl is skinny they accuse them of being anorexic, even the mud men. It was kind of obvious.'

'Sorry I thought you would do that. I should know you're not vain enough to go anorexic. I shouldn't' have even thought that, it's a mental disorder, not something I should even joke about.' Trouble felt terrible, he'd just jumped to conclusions, and probably greatly insulted Holly along the way.

'All good.'

'So you want to talk about it?'

They were both speaking really calmly, both sort of tip toeing around the edges.

'It's just like, I pick up a nettle smoothie and remember the time he yelled at me for being barely a minute late, just before Artemis kidnapped me. Or, with this Chinese, I remember that time Foaly went to that high alert because vulcanologists were trying to discover more about how Volcanoes worked and he thought they might discover the chutes, even though that particular volcano didn't connect to the main chute system.' Holly gave a small chuckle, and a small smile, both brimming with sadness.

They stood up, their food forgotten, with some unspoken understanding, and moved to Trouble's couch. They sat rather closer than they normally would. Holly was really messed up since Commander Root's death, and it was all coming out now, whether she wanted it to or not.

Neither of them really had any more to say, Trouble really wasn't sure what to do, he was hopeless at being comforting. Carefully, he moved a little closer to Holly, even more carefully putting his hand around her shoulders. Holly didn't struggle; in fact, she relaxed, resting her head on Trouble's shoulder with another sigh, this time content.

They sat like that for a long time. Finally Trouble broke the silence.

'Holly, he wouldn't want you to do this to yourself. He's still alive in memories, and he wouldn't want that to hurt people. Please, you have to eat.'

Trouble blinked. That was his second relatively insightful comment today. What was happening to him? Usually he was very matter of fact, no surprising comments or anything. Maybe something was happening to him, for Holly's sake. Whatever it was, he thought it was working, although he knew Holly probably wouldn't end up eating the cold Chinese tonight. Not that Chinese wasn't delicious cold.

'I know,' murmured Holly, lifting her head. Trouble thought that this must be signalling that she was ready to end the mushy moment, which wasn't at all in Holly's usual style (mushy moments, I mean). He was wrong; he couldn't have been further from being correct.

Holly was overcome by a sudden fleeting desire to do something she had never thought she would have a desire to do. It must have had something with his unusually insightful comments, or the fact he was giving up his time to care about her. She reached up, lifted her head up, and planted her lips on his.

Startled, Trouble's fist impulse was to deepen the kiss. Then he realised what he was doing, and pulled away. Holly looked up at him, confusion in her eyes. Why was he pulling away, when at first he had deepened the kiss?

Trouble stroked her hair sadly, looking into her eyes. He had just realised how much he wanted to fall in love with her, but they were friends, nothing more, nothing less. He wasn't going to take advantage of her being in the state she was in. He wouldn't tell her all of that, just that he didn't want to take advantage of her, because he valued the use of his nose.

'Why?' whispered Holly.

'I'm not going to take advantage of you,' replied Trouble sadly.

Holly debated questioning him, telling him that she wanted nothing more than for him to fall in love with her, even though she had never really wanted a boyfriend or anything like that. It took a few seconds, but she realised the truth, she was just really messed up, it wouldn't last if it started like this. At this point in time Trouble was her mate, nothing more. He had just proven himself as the one of her mates that she could trust more than any other, by what he had just done. He had proved that he cared about her as a person, as a friend, not just as a girl.

Trouble gave a Holly a quick hug and stood up. By an unspoken agreement they decided to pretend that the mushy moment had never happened.

'So…' began Holly uncertainly.

'Do you want to go home now?'

'Yea, I'll eat breakfast tomorrow morning,' joked Holly.

'Should we go then?' asked Trouble.

Holly nodded and grabbed her jacket. The pair of friends headed out of Trouble's apartment.

'You know you don't have to walk me home. I'm not going to drop dead on a five minute walk.'

'I'm coming. I feel like a walk. Besides, look what happened to you when you were out for that run.'

'Don't rub it in,' muttered Holly. She was actually becoming rather embarrassed about that. And, though she would never admit it, kind of scared. It was becoming more and more obvious that someone was stalking her, and who on earth would want to stalk her, apart from Chix Verbil, and it obviously wasn't him, because whoever it was had used mechanical wings, and sprites had their own. Admittedly Chix couldn't fly very well on his wings, but sprites physically couldn't wear mechanical wings, they were likely to cut the sprites real wings off. Not pretty. It probably wasn't Chix Verbil then.

Holly looked sideways at Trouble. It couldn't have been him, could it? Holly doubted that somehow. No one was a good enough actor to portray the shock Trouble did when he found out about the bombs and her ankle. Besides, Holly had known Trouble for a long time; he was a pretty bad actor.

So, if it wasn't Trouble, and it wasn't Chix, who could it be? Holly decided to leave unravelling the mysteries of the universe until tomorrow. What harm could it do?

It was a relatively short walk to Holly's apartment from Trouble's, it only took five minutes. They resolved to climb the stairs, Holly only lived on the third floor, and they weren't lazy enough to take the lift.

'You going to come in?' she asked Trouble.

'Just for a couple of minutes, aye? I should be getting some sleep before my shift tomorrow… today. D'Arvit, is that the time?'

'Yea, OK. A cup of hot chocolate?'

'OK.'

Fairies don't drink tea and coffee, even the adults, they didn't need caffeine; they had magic.

Holly punched in her key code and pushed her door open. She stepped inside. When she saw what lay waiting for her on her dining table she stopped in her tracks and gasped. She grabbed Trouble's arm.

Trouble wasn't really paying much attention, but when Holly gasped and grabbed his arm he looked in the direction Holly was looking in.

'D'Arvit,' he breathed.

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A/N: Important: Holly is not anorexic, and she never has been. Anorexia is a serious mental disorder that Holly does not have. Trouble just thinks she does, because, from my experience, whenever anyone starts eating less for any reason, everyone assumes they've gone anorexic (it gets annoying after a while, trust me). I repeat, Holly is _not_ anorexic, and she never will be. I would not insult people with anorexia by actually making her anorexic, because she isn't.

The little bit from the stalkers point of view should give you a lot of clues as to his identity. All I'm going to tell you is that it is a he. Please, if you think you have guessed and want to ask me (highly unlikely I'll tell you, but I'm feeling generous. I'll tell you what. The first person to email me and tell me who the stalker is will be told straight out whether they are right or wrong) please email me. You might get a clue out of me. If you must, put any guesses in a review, but don't be expecting me to tell you straight out, that would ruin it for everyone else.

The end of that chapter. Don't loose all hope of an update in two weeks, if I can write I will be updating. Thank you for reading. Please review!

_Review Replies:_

If I told you that it would ruin the story, if, in fact, it was going to happen. You'll have to wait and find out. There are clues…. If you want to know. Have fun swimming. Thanks for reviewing.

_wackywildcrazy: _Thanks for reviewing.

_maddisonavenue: _Thanks. I doubt that will ever happen, and, as far as I know, it isn't in this story, because someone would have to be a total Mary-Sue to get along with Artemis in that way. Thanks for reviewing.

_Tex110: _Thanks.

_The White Lily: _Ick, sounds promising. You might have it there, but please, don't tell anyone who you think it is. Everyone will probably end up guessing before the stalker actually reveals his identity, but we will see. Constructive criticism, always welcome. I know what you mean about the anorexic thing, and I agree, anorexia is a serious mental disorder. I was kind of trying to highlight how there are several people in today's world that just assume that, because someone is neglecting their health or eating less, everyone will assume they are anorexic. People who are anorexic and people who are not anorexic but being accused of this find it extremely insulting. I hope it kind of worked, and I would never make Holly anorexic. I really do apologise if anything I wrote offended you, it wasn't meant to come out in an offensive manner. I think that's kind of been resolved by now, I hope.

The comma thing, whoops, is all I can really say. I knew that, but I must have forgotten it somewhere, maybe it fell out of my ear. I've tried to go and correct all of that, if I've missed any, please tell me.

The yea thing, I've tried to put an 'h' after most of them, since you said that. I just need to point out that, most of the time for almost my whole writing life, as far as I can remember, I've spelt it 'yea'. It's just how people where I come from spell it. But I suppose if 'yeah' is what people are used to, 'yeah' is how I will spell it. It does make it easier to distinguish.

_Stiggy: _I finally worked out a good point of a laptop, you can't do that. R.I.P. to your computer. If your stories are still intact does that mean you can update? Hmmm, maybe they do, you will have to wait to find out. I never thought of that possibility…

Eek, run…

_refloc: _Thanks for reviewing.


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